Kiama – Place Where The Sea Makes a Noise

Kiama is a small town on the Southern coast of NSW in Australia. Local guidebooks reiterate that the name comes from the Aboriginal word kiarama means “place where the sea makes a noise”. On the coast end of the town, is a spot underneath the lighthouse that is visited by hundreds of people a year. There is a naturally formed blowhole(click to read geographical details of how they work) in the rocky coast which spurts out water every couple of minutes. There is another blowhole known as Little Kiama Blowhole a bit further down which is not as popular.

Kiama Blowhole

(A dive video into the blowhole)

Kiama is a cosy little beach town with pine lined streets and dotted with heritage buildings. Like the restored Post Office, the Police Station and Courthouse.

Kiama Court House & Police Station. Heritage Building 1860.

Kiama Post Office. Heritage Building – 1878

Even though Kiama has a small town population, the weekends are always bustling. With the craft and fish markets on, it draws in the crowds. The main street houses many a coffee shop and cafes.

After the Blowholes, we stopped here for some pub lunch at the Kiama Inn Hotel. Then walked around the main street admiring its restored history, browsing in the little trinket shops and breathing in deep gulps of pine-scented sea air before carrying on with our road trip.